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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27829021">In Search of Jade</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rdroigo/pseuds/Rdroigo'>Rdroigo</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales from the Hunt [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Monster Hunter (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:27:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,926</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27829021</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rdroigo/pseuds/Rdroigo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Traveling to the far north, a hunting duo delves into the Tundra in search for one rare creature.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales from the Hunt [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1924990</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>In Search of Jade</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After accepting a request from her partner, a dedicated tracker, to make this hunt, the gunner was at the base of one of the tall rocky cliffs that covered the zone. The duo has traveled to the far north of the continent, to a frozen landmass that served as a hunting ground in searching for a beast that her companion wanted to study. The place was a cold tundra situated at the base of an impressive mountain, adorned by pines and glaciers, the perfect habitat for many species adapted to the snow.</p>
<p>The creature they were looking for was known as the Jade Barroth. Unlike the more widely distributed and well known desert dwelling Barroth, this Jade variant, who has gained this name because of the color of his scales, has adapted to live in cold climates such as this. Both creatures are really similar, with nearly identical behavior and diet, but have a couple of key differences. The most obvious one is the color of their scales: the normal Barroth has a brownish, almost orangy tone in his scales, while the Jade subspecies presents this greener coloration. The other change is that the crown on the Jade Barroth appears to be larger than its desert cousin, which the Jade seems to use to excavate the ice and snow from his habitat.</p>
<p>The gunner was setting up the trap that she had discussed with her friend beforehand. The tracker had to find the creature and lure it to this zone while she prepared a trap for it, consisting of a couple of explosive barrels on the side of the cliff, that she would hide using some snow. The idea was to bring their prey here and make it attack the zone, triggering a nasty surprise.</p>
<p>Once the barrels were on position, she started to load up her weapon, a light bowgun that she brought for this hunt specifically. Given the terrain and the creature they were planning to deal with, the gunner couldn't afford to bring her more heavy, though powerful, weapons since it would make her movements dangerously slow. So, she decided to go for something swift and prepare a couple of traps to compensate for the loss in firepower.</p>
<p>Then, she heard a powerful roar coming from a nearby cave, and then the silhouette of the tracker, running as fast as she could while the sound of growls and stomps intensified. A theropod-like creature emerged from the darkness of the tunnel, chasing down the tracker who must have disturbed him in some way to lure it to this spot.</p>
<p>Her partner has managed to provoke the animal enough to make it follow her to their trap, and now the Jade Barroth wanted nothing but to end them. The creature lowered his head and started to sprint, charging against the tracker with impressive speed, while also tossing around quite an amount of snow. She rolled to the side, away from its path, while the gunner raised her weapon and started to shoot at the creature. The Barroth ignored her, and with an U-shaped turn it continued its charge against the tracker, forcing her to roll again out of his way. Turning around to face both hunters, the creature roared at them menacingly, and started to move against the tracker once more.</p>
<p>He approached her with speed while raising his head, slamming it down on the ground when at range. The tracker rolled to the side and unsheathed her weapon, a long and thick glaive that had a sharp edge on one side and a wide, blunt ending on the other that hid a couple of useful functions, and pointed it to the Barroth. On the handle of such a weapon rested a Foebettle, which she has raised and trained since it was a larva, alongside many other Neopterons. These creatures she trained were pretty good at picking up tracks, while also being hard enough to be useful in battle, and so the tracker sended her "somewhat small" companion into battle.</p>
<p>Wasting no time, the Barroth uses his head as a shovel to fling chunks of ice and snow ahead after the slam, which forces the gunner to move around to evade them before resuming the attack. Her partner uses a pheromone charge stored on the glaive and shoots it against the creature's face, attracting the Foebeetle to fly around his head while hitting him every few seconds. Being an insectivore creature this proves to be a good distraction, for the Barroth tries to chomp at the beetle without success, losing interest in the hunters for the moment.</p>
<p><em>"Now, lure him to the barrels!"</em>, says the gunner, taking position nearby with her bowgun. The tracker obeys, positioning herself close to the explosive barrels while she recalls the Foebettle with a whistle, dragging the attention of the Jade Barroth back to her. The brute wyvern lowers his head down again and starts charging, oblivious to the trap, while the tracker waits for her opportunity to act. Once he's in range, she hits the ground with the blunt side of her weapon to activate its second function: a small propulsion device, which launches her high up in the air. Using this, she jumps over the Barroth and activates it again mid-air to propel herself away from the barrels. Without a moment to react, the creature impacts against the bombs and activates them, exploding right in his face, which makes him recoil and fall back on its side, stunned.</p>
<p>Seeing the creature down, both hunters focus on the attack. The tracker moves to the belly of the beast and swings his glaive rapidly against the soft side of his body, while the gunner uses a sticky ammunition against his crest, which explodes after a moment. For some precious seconds, both of them are able to dish out some good damage on the creature, but soon the stun ends and it starts to flail around wildly, trying to stand up once again. After a moment, it manages to be back on his feet, which forces both hunters to walk back.</p>
<p>Enraged at these intruders for attacking him in his territory, the Jade Barroth launches a ferocious roar and starts to shoot out steam from his crest, where his nostrils are located. With a quick movement, he charges at the gunner and slams his head on the ground, followed by a wide swipe with his ice covered club-like tail in the same direction, which forces the hunter to dive out of his way, the tail swipe flying just centimeters over her head. Seeing this, the tracker sends her Kinsect, as they are often called by other hunters and scholars who study them, back at the face of the Barroth to distract him. Being enraged, the creature mostly ignores the beetle as food and starts to shake his body in an attempt to push it away. This causes the big chunks of snow that covered his back to fly out of his body, hitting the zone around him at random points. One of these pieces hit the gunner, who was trying to recover, covering her in snow and the Barroth’s protective mucus, encasing her in a solid block of packed snow.</p>
<p>Seeing her friend in danger, the tracker launches herself against the Barroth to distract him, while she shoots another pheromone charge against the snow block, to send her kinsect as help. Using the glaive's capability to jump high, she slashes against his now uncovered back, which captures the attention of the beast. It tries to hit her with its tail, but she manages to push herself back into the air in time to evade it. Meanwhile, the Foebettle attacks the block of solid snow, and after a few good hits it manages to release the gunner. She quickly recharges her weapon and starts shooting flaming ammunition against the Barroth, aiming at his legs now.</p>
<p>During one of her maneuvers on the air, the tracker manages to land on the back of the Barroth and holds onto it, mounting it to keep his attention away from her partner, while also trying to hit him a bit more. The beast flais around wildly, desperate to get her off his back, but the tracker manages to hold on in place while her companion shoots freely at the creatures legs, slowly but surely making damage to his hard scales. On an attempt to shake her off, the Jade Barroth moves closer to one of the rocky walls, trying to smash her against it. The tracker notices this and, before getting squished against the wall, jumps upfront and grabs from his crest, hanging on the side of his face. Quickly, the hunter takes the chance and pushes the blunt end of her weapon against his face and activates the device, pushing his head against the cliff and knocking him down once more. With another jump, she lands in front of his belly and resumes the attack, while the gunner smiles at the creativity of her partner and joins her in the offensive.</p>
<p>They use the advantage well, breaking the last bits of ice that protected him before the Barroth manages to stand up back again. This time, however, the creature seems to recoil a bit from them, and decides to retreat, slightly limping because of the damage received on his legs. Seeing this, the gunner loads up new ammunition and shoots at the beast, applying a stain of paint on him to be able to track it. The pair takes a moment to breathe and recover, drinking a small healing concoction before resuming their hunt.</p>
<p><em>"You want to capture it, then?"</em>, asked the gunner to confirm their intentions.</p>
<p><em>"Yes, please. I really want to finish my investigation on the Barroth family, and you know it's hard to find this subspecies..."</em>, answered the tracker, a bit excited at the prospect of being able to study the creature.</p>
<p>The gunner smiles softly. <em>"I guess you're right. Get your trap ready, you'll pay for dinner when we get back in town."</em> She changes again the ammunition in his bowgun, this time loading the tranquilizing shots they've prepared for the capture.</p>
<p>They follow the trail of paint for a while, climbing up a bit into the mountains until they reach a secluded cliff and get to see the nest of the Barroth and the creature sleeping in it, trying to rest from the combat and recover from its wounds. The tracker takes the device and activates it, placing the shock trap on the path, and then her partner then fires the first shot at his head, waking him up. The Barroth stands up and looks at them, before charging against them in a final attempt to drive them away. But, in the middle of it, he steps on the trap and activates it, causing an electrical discharge to run through his body, paralyzing him momentarily. The gunner takes the chance and fires at his face a couple of rounds, applying the tranquilizer until the creature falls under its effects and slowly ends up asleep. She quickly fires a flare to the air, as a signal to the Guild to inform their success.</p>
<p>Both of them sit on the cold rocks at the same time, exhausted from the hunt. The tracker smiles brightly, standing up after some mere moments of rest to inspect their captured prey, while the gunner just watches her with a warm smile. Patiently, they wait for the Guild's arrival to help them move the Barroth to town.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm sorry, Barroth, I'm so sorry :(</p>
<p>A big thanks to my friend, who helped me doing the corrections on my fics up until now :D</p></blockquote></div></div>
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